The sectoral committees on culture and communication plan for a relaunch in Quebec 

May 20, 2020

"In the wake of the state of health emergency decree, Minister of Culture and Communications Nathalie Roy and her teams mobilized to ensure support for Quebec's cultural community, which has been severely affected by the current crisis.

Various emergency assistance measures were defined and then implemented, notably to enable cultural businesses and organizations to quickly obtain the necessary liquidities and thus meet their financial obligations: 

the Ministère provided early financial assistance to 423 organizations, for a total of $27.3 million;
the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec provided over 400 cultural organizations with early financial assistance totalling $36 million;
the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles has set up a $50 million emergency assistance program.

Other actions include the concentration of advertising investments in the Quebec media related to the government's campaign on COVID-19, with a budget of over $10 million per phase.

A consultation structure for a successful exit from the crisis

To ensure the success of a gradual resumption of activities, Minister Nathalie Roy asked that the main stakeholders from the various cultural sectors be heard. 

The Ministère de la Culture et des Communications has therefore set up a consultation structure in order to exchange views with the cultural community on their respective realities and on the appropriate and promising measures for the recovery.

Six sectoral committees have been created, namely :

Performing Arts and Dissemination; 
Museums, Crafts and Art Galleries; 

These committees benefit from the expertise of specialists from the Direction de la santé publique and the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail. The objective is to support the cultural community in its efforts to resume its activities.

Health measures first

As a first step, the sectoral committees are working to identify and validate the physical distancing measures that could be put in place, in accordance with the health rules laid down by the public health authorities. The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail has taken charge of producing health standards guides for most sectors of activity, which is an essential step in ensuring the health and safety of both cultural workers and artists.

To this end, members of the sectoral committees can send the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications their proposals for health-related accommodations based on the standards established by Public Health. The Commission is then responsible for producing, when necessary, a general guide that takes the proposals into account. For this purpose, it brings together the members of the relevant sectoral committee, both trade union and employer associations.

These guides will take account of the specific features of each sector to ensure that activities can be resumed in the safest possible conditions thanks to health measures adapted to each environment. 

Planning a sustainable economic recovery

At the same time, the committees are reflecting on and contributing to the development of concrete economic stimulus measures. Minister Nathalie Roy is working closely with the Minister of Finance, the Minister of the Economy, the Minister of Labour and the Prime Minister's Office to ensure that the cultural and communications sector resumes its activities in a sustainable manner and once again becomes an engine of economic and social development for Québec.

To achieve this, the cultural and communications community must continue to mobilize. It is by aiming for a healthy and sustainable recovery and by working together that we will deploy innovative solutions."

This is an official communication from the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications translated from French.